The Cowboy And The Lady
by stoner-blake
Summary: A caravan in need of extra hands hires on Yang and her sister as guards, much to the displeasure of the one in charge of making sure it gets safely to Beacon, one Weiss Schnee. (rating may be subject to change)
1. Chapter 1

Ugh. Just why couldn't she have sent one of the caravan hands to do this? The stench of booze alone that seemed to have soaked into the very floor and walls of the inn itself was enough to almost make her turn around and head back without trying to find a person with the skills she needed. There was no need to even mention the layabouts scattered around the place, some playing card games around a table in the corner, a couple of others slumped over the back of their chair or the table in front of them, the alcohol in their systems ensuring a sound sleep as they snored away.

Maybe it was lucky that she had chosen to come here at noon, ensuring that the usual crowd of drunkards wouldn't have yet arrived after their day's work. It definitely meant only a couple of men turned to heckle or catcall the girl as she walked in, arctic eyes quick to send a scornful glare their way that threatened to turn them into ice. The hem of a snowy white dress tinged with deep blue swirled around midway down the lower half of her legs, the waist of it tied snugly by a cream sash to help show off her figure. Silver hair was tied off to the side in a ponytail by an ornate piece of jewellery that almost resembled a crown. Tall ivory boots that hugged her calves made a repetitive clacking noise with their heels across the oak floor as she strode through to the counter that surrounded the bar.

Looking up from washing a dirty glass with an even dirtier rag, the balding bartender was quick to put his work away on the cabinet of liquor behind him as the lady approached, her expression never changing from grim and annoyed for a second. He gave a welcoming grin, revealing a few gaps where teeth were supposed to be but weren't. One side of her lips pulled back slightly into a sneer for a second, before she remembered that she was supposed to be polite, at least until she got what she wanted from this dusty town.

"What can I getcha?" The question rolled easily off his tongue, used to saying it multiple times each evening when a potential customer approached him. A scent of chewing tobacco wafted across with his breath, the girl pulling back slightly as she cringed from the smell.

"Nothing," She replied stiffly, leaning her arms across the counter as she eyed a worn stool next to her. No, that didn't look remotely clean enough to hop onto. "Not unless you can tell me of any guns that are looking to be hired." That was the turn of phrase that she was supposed to use, yes? When looking for an extra guard to accompany them through the state? He paused at the words used, sensing that the girl was not at all used to what she was attempting to do. And wherever ignorance could be found, was also the chance for a quick buck to be made before said ignorance rubbed off.

"Well, I suppose I could help you find some, but I'd need a little bit of grease for my trap, you know?" He responded subtly as he could, though the eager way that he also leaned across the counter towards her, and the conniving smile on his face spoke gave away exactly what he was trying to do. Take her money on the promise that he would find some people for her, and then say that he couldn't find any without even trying. Her eyes narrowed swiftly, having seen this kind of play done many times before, though a lot better than he was attempting.

"Then I suppose I should take my business elsewhere." Her back turning to face the slimy bartender, the girl made as if to walk straight out of the inn, prompting a rushed call from him as he tried to undo his mistake.

"Wait, wait!" He pleaded with her, certain that while he might not have fooled her that time, there would be another chance for it. "Whoa there, I didn't say I wasn't going to help you at all now, did I? Surely there's gotta be a way that-"

"Can it, geezer. She's already seen right through you." A new voice interrupted them, coming clearly from the other end of the counter. "You're not taking her for a sucker today. Or any other day, it looks like." The bartender sneered openly, but turned away to stomp off out through a nearby door to the kitchen out back.

Turning her head to look down towards the figure poised on a stool that had spoken up, the girl's eyes landed first on the long tousled mane of blonde curls that were cascading down the other's back. Black gloves that didn't cover her fingers allowed the woman to trace one fingertip round a shot glass in front of her idly. A thick orange scarf was circled around her neck, half ducking below the collar of the tan leather jacket hanging loose around her torso. Although she was turned to face the bar and the jacket covered most of her upper body before finishing up around her thighs, a bright flash of yellow could be seen from the gap it left over her chest. Black pants flowed out from under the jacket, covered with leather chaps for most of it, a length of grey fabric wound around above the right knee and tied off in a simple knot. The pants were long enough to hide most of her boots, though more of the same dusty tanned leather peeked out from around the cuffs.

"So," She spoke up again, interrupting the girl's examination of the stranger from going much further. Though she made no attempt to get up, the woman did glance towards her, lavender eyes gleaming as a toothy grin broke out. "You're looking for some people who know how to use their guns. I think I can help, but I need to know what's it for first."

"...It's for guarding some caravans." The explanation was short, but it was obvious that she wasn't keen to give even that away. A pair of pale arms crossed over the front of her dress as the blonde tapped her finger on the glass rim a couple of times, thinking it over.

"You mean the one that's been camped out near the entrance to the town since this morn?" There was a hesitant nod as an answer. "Hmmm. Where are ya headed then?"

"The city of Beacon, in the state of Vale." A low whistle rang out. That was a long distance to take what looked like a simple trading caravan line. There was something going on here, but she wasn't about to question it right now.

"Then I guess you're in luck." The mysterious grin widened broadly, showing off more gleaming white teeth against tanned skin as she turned on the stool to face the girl better, one arm propping an elbow up on the wooden counter. "I was actually heading that way myself, and could use a chance to earn some coin along the way. I even know someone who's pretty much an expert with the rifle, if you're looking for that." That got the attention of those blue eyes, eyebrows rising up. "I'm Yang. What's your name, princess?" The girl bristled at the nickname, mouth turning down in a sour line.

"It's Weiss Schnee to you, not 'princess'." She was barely able to keep herself in a polite tone and not hiss the line out. She had to keep in mind, they were two hands down now thanks to a couple of the guards choosing to run off in the night and join one of those roaming gangs of bandits that seemed to keep springing up all over the country. If she even got one more cowboy to stick with them long enough to hire a proper gunman that was affiliated with her father's company once they reached a decent city, then she could sleep a lot better at night. What little she could when travelling. "I expect you to either call me Miss Schnee, or Boss, considering I would be your employer."

The stupid grin on Yang's face didn't go anywhere, much to Weiss's annoyance. "So when do we leave, princess?" Brows furrowed, the girl tried hard to keep her growing anger with the flippant dismissal that the woman was talking to her with. Keeping her arms crossed, she managed to keep her hands curling into fists out of sight as she sought to hold onto her composure.

"...Tomorrow morning, at dawn." Weiss answered curtly, turning her gaze over to the saloon's entrance. "Be there on time, or we'll leave without you and you can kiss goodbye to the job." A small nod of farewell, the princess strode off, eager to get back to organising the caravan for the trip that would start tomorrow. Yang chuckled to herself as she watched her leave, eyes surreptitiously dropping down to watch how the skirt part of the dress moved.

"Well, that was a thing." Icy attitude aside, she was looking forward to working with the girl and earning some money. Oh, guess she would have to tell Ruby too about this change in plans to how they would travel over to see uncle Qrow. She probably wouldn't be too happy about having to move with other people for a while, but it was most likely for the best, the girl needed to get out of her shell more and talk to other people. Not to mention that they would both get paid then.

Speaking of getting paid. Her gaze turned towards the group of men still playing poker in a secluded corner of the inn. There was a screech of wood on wood as Yang pushed the stool out from the bar, jumping off to her feet with a thud. Not a one of the players seemed to notice her swaggering over with a predator-like gaze to her face.

"Gentlemen." One of them glanced up at the word spoken right next to him, balking at seeing the blonde looming right over him. The others soon took swift notice, their faces all turning a shade of pale as they recognised her instantly. "I believe there is a matter about you all owing me some amount of cash from last night's game?"

A chair slammed against the nearby wall as one tried to make a run for it. He didn't get far, one hand grabbing him by the collar, the other doing the same to another that had opted to reach for a revolver tucked into his belt, hauling them both up into the air with ease before slamming them down onto the table simultaneously. Chips and cards scattered everywhere as the remaining three players froze where they were, not wanting to risk any more wrath from the strong woman. Not a breath of noise stirred as Yang grinned yet again, in control of the situation.

"Now then," Keeping her hands on two throats to hold down the pair, she leaned back slightly to allow her hair to slide out from her vision, letting the rest of the men see the violet eyes starting to stain crimson. "How are you going to pay me?"

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><p><strong>Hope you like the chapter! If you did, please consider leaving a review.<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

The jet blackness of the night sky hadn't yet pulled back save for a growing swathe of lightening purple and blue coming from the horizon, but the site of the caravan was buzzing with activity nonetheless. Getting ready while the air was still cool with the night's chill served to make tasks such as stacking crates away into the wagons and packing up tents much easier than the heat of the coming day would. The cool air seemed to cling to the skin as one moved around, like a thin layer of water hanging in the air. It was almost pleasant when you were so used to the scorching levels the temperature could reach during the day. Other than the occasional nicker and snort from the horses that pulled the wagons, and a breeze blowing through to flap the canvas materials covering the carts, it was quiet too, practically peaceful in this pre-dawn time.

Still, while most of the workers had gotten used to the early day's start, there was still one person whose body resisted wakefulness for as long as possible. Blinking blearily as she supervised the clean up, Weiss struggled to stifle any yawns that tried to rise up through her throat, clutching the thin jacket on her tighter around herself. It always seemed like each night she would toss and turn on the hard ground, not getting a wink of sleep despite the thick mat laid under her. And by the time she did settle down, the morning bell was ringing through the camp.

Giving one worker some directions on what they needed to do, the silver haired girl raised one hand up to her mouth to cover a yawn that managed to slip through as he walked off. They had all been up less than half an hour, and they were just about ready to move out. Good, it looked like her drilling about organisation and need for punctuality were getting through to them, even if there had been disgruntled attitudes by her hands on approach for rebuking them when they messed up or didn't follow her plans in the first few days of travel.

Speaking of organisation and punctuality, they were still waiting on that blonde cowboy and her friend the rifle expert to show up. Granted, she had said that they would be leaving at dawn, so there was still some time left before the sun would cross over the horizon to start the new day proper. But they would be cutting it close if they didn't show up soon, and Weiss couldn't afford having to wait around for them and waste precious travelling time. Even if it meant they would be two hands short until they got to the next town over.

Nearly everything was in place for them to start moving when the familiar sound of horse hooves on packed dirt reached Weiss's ears, getting closer with each moment. Her view of where the sound was coming from blocked by a wagon, the leader of the caravan had to move round to the side of it, and out of the circle that had been formed by the carts.

Two horses were coming from the direction of the town, striding straight towards Weiss. Given the differences in height between them, about a good foot or so, she would give that one was a mare, and the other a gelded stallion. That proved more likely the closer the pair got, the stocky features of the taller horse standing out while the thin soft lines of the mare became clearer. The stallion had flaxen hair nearly all over, save for where it darkened to deep brown at the muzzle and socks, its mane and tail both of chestnut colour. The mare however, was darker with no change to the socks, with black mane and tail that were tinged with streaks of sienna.

There was another mane that stood out from the horses, and that was the mass of blonde curls bopping up and down in rhythm with the stallion's strides. Looked like that Yang kept to her promises then. There was a wave of relief that went through the caravan leader, though she soon shoved it aside once she could notice who the cowboy's companion was.

"Hey there princess. Were you waiting long?" Yang called out as she pulled on the reins, coaxing her horse into slowing into a trot, and then to a standstill beside the woman. There was a tan cloak wrapped around her figure, and still that same damn stupid grin from yesterday on her face. The lack of sleep that Weiss had gotten only served to increase her irritation with the tanned blonde from niggle in the back of her mind, to wanting to smack that look off her face. All that held her back was remembering that leaders don't do that, and the fact the other was still atop a very tall horse.

"I thought you were bringing a rifle expert with you." The girl said pointedly, turning her glance to the one riding the mare. Not that they would have noticed, dozing off in the saddle to the point of leaning dangerously forward, mere inches from what would be enough to ensure she tipped over. It looked to be a girl round Weiss's height, though perhaps a couple of years younger, if not more. Straight dark hair, tinged with streaks of red, covered a face that was blissfully unaware of their predicament, another cloak, this one deep crimson, wrapped around them preventing much else from being seen about their figure. The mare paced around under her, having come to a stop of its own accord, working to keep its rider from falling off in their sleep.

Yang, noticing once Weiss had spoken, leaned out of her saddle towards the other rider, to reach out and shake the girl's shoulder vigorously. She startled back into the real world with a yelp, grey eyes blinking furiously as she straightened up.

"I'm up, I'm up!" The girl insisted as she looked around, mind ticking over to come to the answer of to what had happened. Giving a derisive snort under her, the mare stopped its stepping back and forth, relieved that its owner wasn't going to topple off any time soon. Glancing back between the blonde and the silver haired girl on the ground, she soon adopted an apologetic smile, drawing in on herself as she cringed at what had most definitely happened. Not the best introduction to who was supposed to be their boss for a while. "...Ah, hi there. I'm Ruby."

"A pleasure to meet you." Though the way she said it made it sound anything but. Weiss's icy blue gaze switched over to Yang. "Why did you bring a child with you, and not this 'friend' you mentioned?" She ignored Ruby bristling at the comment, she was too irritated with herself for agreeing so quickly to taking on the taller girl and not even checking who she had in mind when they were talking.

"Don't worry about it." Yang shrugged the question off. "Ruby might be young, but I've never seen anyone handle a rifle better than my little sis here!" As she finished, she leaned out of her saddle again to quickly ruffle the younger girl's hair with one hand, ducking back to her horse before Ruby could swipe at her for doing so, turning back to Weiss as she thumped a fist to where her heart would be, grin turning confident. "We'll be able to handle anything that comes together, don't you fret pumpkin."

"Stop it with the nicknames!" Weiss didn't normally snap at people, refusing to let her cool mask slip in front of others, but the pet names were becoming a bit much for her. "I told you before, you either call me 'boss', or Miss Schnee. Nothing else will be acceptable." Her expression was now screaming annoyed, eyes narrowed, eyebrows drawn in to each other, and her mouth set like stone in a thin line. Not that it seemed to bother Yang any, who simply chuckled under her breath, thinking it best not to say anything about how cute her employer got while angry.

"I'll think about it." One of Weiss's eyes twitched in anger from the vague answer. "So, what positions should we take then? You know, for when we get moving?" As they had talked, the first sliver of the golden circle that was the sun had appeared over the edge of the horizon, its rays mere minutes away from staining the ground gold as it would rise even further. The dawn was here. Weiss huffed, wanting to make her displeasure clear to the older girl, but knew they had to keep to a schedule here.

"...You'll be in behind the first wagon." She granted, seceding away from what she wanted to do to focus on what she needed to do. "Just follow the cart, and keep an eye out for any bandits that might be coming to rob us. If any do show up, you and the other guards will have to... deter them from doing so."

"You mean shoot them till they either turn tail or drop dead?" Yang summed up differently.

"That's one way to put it." Weiss acceded, turning away to check over how the rest of the caravan workers were now that it was time to go. Looks like everything was set, everyone exactly where they needed to be and nothing left out of place. "We can talk more later, but it's time to get moving. We have to take advantage of every minute of daylight we get." Giving a dismissive wave, she walked off to the first wagon that had been lined up, being helped up onto it by a worker and proceeding to talk to him. Other labourers that caught sight of this quickly bustled into movement once more, the drivers of each cart grabbing the reins of their horses.

Yang looked over to her sister, who had a questioning expression on her face, one eyebrow raised up. Another shrug came from the blonde.

"Hey, come on. It won't be that bad." She said, answering the unspoken questions. "The ice princess might need a little defrosting, but I'm sure it'll get better after a while. Plus, we're getting paid for heading the same way we were, just with company." Taking hold of her reins, she nudged inwards with her heels, the stallion moving forward again as he received the signal, trotting into position as Ruby and her horse followed after.

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><p>The day warmed up considerably fast once the rays of sunlight started to hit the earth, going from the cool air that had been a little chilly at worst, to humid air that made everyone feel like they had been pushed into an oven. It may have been getting close to noon, it was hard to tell with the heat making each minute stretch on and on. Not to mention the lack of anything to do other than scan the scrublands and rolling plains around them. Still, no one complained as the convoy rattled along the dirt path it was on, just wanting to get as far down the route as they could in one day.<p>

"It's so hot!" Yang complained loudly, taking off a wide brimmed hat that she had pulled out once the sun had risen completely above the edge of land they could see, fanning herself with it for a few moments as she also tugged at the collar of her shirt. "I didn't think it would get so bad!"

"Maybe it just feels worse for you because you've got leather on?" Ruby posed, not feeling too bad under the blazing sun. The cloak she had on was thin cotton, enough not to absorb much heat, and underneath she was wearing a simple white dress with short puffy sleeves, with a red sash around her waist. Originally, when they had started travelling by themselves, it had been a black dress, but that had quickly proven inadvisable when she passed out from overheating on their first day. Since then, the younger sister had done all she could to avoid a repeat of the incident. Yang gave her a mock glare.

"I'm not taking it off, if that's what you're suggesting. What kind of cowboy would I be without it?" She didn't mention any difficulty that might come from undressing in front of everyone else, because she didn't care about that at all. "The sun wouldn't be so bad to deal with if it also wasn't so boring!" They had been going at the same exact pace for ages, unable to speed up or mess around without attracting the ire of their small boss, who had been quick to yell at them from the front of the wagon ahead of them when they had actually done so to break up the stagnant feel an hour ago.

Ruby laughed as her sister sulked openly about that, her arms crossed over her considerable chest as she kept balance in her saddle. At least there was one thing entertaining about this trip, and that was Yang herself.

A crack like thunder rang out in the air over them, startling everyone around. Pushing against her stirrups, Yang swiftly stood up in her saddle, suddenly becoming serious as she scanned around them for where the gunshot had come from. There was nothing else it could be, not on a cloudless day like this. Which only meant one thing.

"Bandits!" The cry went up from behind them, a man leaning out of the back of a cart and pointing to the west of them. Everyone who could swivelled to face the direction, the sound of extra hooves beating the ground furiously meeting their ears.

It was a small band of about five men, each with their own horses that were charging at the convoy. The riders were whooping and hollering as they did so, elated by the chance to finally rob some people of their money. Although, considering the chances that a convoy like this was bound to have armed guards, it was hard to tell if they thought themselves up to the task, or just idiots. They had definitely lost the element of surprise by firing off a shot like that, as well as wasting ammunition. One of the men had a rifle that he was furiously trying to reload as he bounced in his seat, the shot obviously from him and an attempt to take out of one of the drivers, Ruby guessed.

As the girl promptly scrambled to reach for her weapon that she kept strapped to her back under the cloak, she missed the grin that slowly stretched over her sister's face beside her. Just what she had been waiting for.

"Looks like it's time for some fun, Ruby!" Yang said, her tone starting off even as her excitement bled into the words the longer she talked. With a yank of the reins, the stallion below her reared with a loud whinny, the front hooves slamming into the earth for a second before the rider and horse were charging off towards the bandits, a special gleam coming into the blonde's eyes. This was going to be good.

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><p><strong>Hope you like the chapter! If you did, please consider leaving a review.<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

The first caravan lurched to a halt at the first gunshot, almost throwing Weiss off her feet and onto her face. Dammit, bandits already? She was expecting maybe an attempted robbery later down the line, once they had gotten days away from the town. Stumbling out to the front of the wagon to peer out the opening behind the driver, the heiress could see the small band of would be robbers heading their way from the side. Idiots, the lot of them. Or so it would appear from the amount of noise they seemed intent on making as they approached. That, and dressing in a mixture of black, certain to draw extra heat from the already scorching day, and bright red, that just made it easier to notice them among the dull earth tones of the grounds and scrubland around them all. Honestly, why they hadn't been noticed earlier, before they managed to fire off a shot that thankfully missed hitting anything, escaped her.

Mind whirring back to the plans she had made up for just such an occasion, the girl opened her mouth to shout orders to the guards and workers back along the line of wagons. The loud whinny of a horse cut her off, catching sight of the stallion of one of the newly hired pair of guards bolting out from behind the cart, heading dead straight at the band of men. Weiss's eyes widened as her brow pulled in, a mixture of surprise and anger flashing through her mind as she could only watch the woman go, a yell for her to get back going ignored. God _dammit!_

As Yang charged towards the bandits, they started to spread out, putting at least four meters in between each horse. They didn't seem to show any concern over the lone guard heading towards them, a grin from one suggesting he thought the woman no threat to their group. Smirking at their overconfidence, the blonde watched them carefully as she took her hands off the reins and let the horse charge of its own volition, drawing in ever closer as her gaze flicked over their hands, watching for any sign of movements towards their belts.

Eager to draw first blood, the one that was almost on track for a collision with her if neither of them altered their path went for his gun first. Too bad Yang's hand was faster, her cloak thrown back to show off a pair of revolvers, one on either side, a hand sliding swiftly across the handle of one on the left and whipping it out faster than a rattlesnake's strike.

The gun kicked back in her hand as she fired off a shot, hitting him square in the chest as her eyes darted off to the man on her immediate right who was about to pass by her, the both of them going for a gun at the same time as the first man slumped over and fell off his horse.

Once again, her speed proved superior, the other revolver out of its holster and aimed at him as he grabbed hold of his. The shot that came this time slammed into the left shoulder, sending him twisting in the saddle as the force knocked him back, falling off with one foot caught in the stirrup as his horse panicked, scrambling to start sprinting off into the distance with him still attached.

The sudden disposal of two of their crew did not go unnoticed by the other three men who had passed by, who quickly realised who the real threat to them making off with the caravan's money was. One pulled sharply on his reins, twisting his horse around to face her back, certain that she couldn't be able to see him reaching for a shotgun he had holstered.

A bang echoed in the air, and less than a second later, the sharp flash of pain struck the middle of his back, jerking him forward onto his horse's neck as the shotgun dropped from his grip. Wait, Weiss had been watching the whole time, and knew that Yang hadn't aimed her gun at him, nor even looked his way. But from the direction the bullet had to have flown in order to hit him in the back...

She glanced behind the wagon to where the sister had remained. In Ruby's hands was a rifle, narrowed eyes squinting down the barrel from the comb of the stock, with the butt drawn up against her shoulder to handle the recoil. Although a gunshot had come from just above it, the mare below was standing stock still, all four hooves planted firmly on the ground. The metal gleamed bronze under the bright sunlight as she went to pull on the lever on top and eject the used casing, Weiss gazing over the pink-tinged rosewood stock and the stylized gold drawing of a rose that gleamed brilliantly on the part of the stock that was held against the girl's shoulder.

The casing popped out and dropped to the ground next to her mare as Weiss's attention was drawn back over to the blonde, who was turning onto the remaining couple of bandits, the grin from before never having left her face during the short conflict so far. The one with the rifle in his hands was now desperately trying to shove a bullet into it despite the bumping and shaking that came from riding a horse at the same time.

He fumbled, dropping it to the ground with a loud curse as his companion wheeled sharply to dodge a shot from Yang. A brief grimace came onto her face when her bullet didn't find it's mark, going to aim again with her other revolver as he came charging towards her. A jerk to the reins at the right time made it also whizz off into open air, thudding into the dirt some dozen meters or so away from her target.

Taking the opportunity given by the near misses, he reached for his gun, flicking it up as soon as it slid out of the holster to shoot straight from his hip at her. The lump of lead zoomed through the air and brushed by the girl's cheek, slicing through the top layers of skin as it passed on by. Blood was quick to well up at the wound, a line of crimson showing up within seconds, a bead dropping down from it to curve towards her chin.

"Shit!" Yang hissed to herself. That stung like hell! A sharp tug, and her stallion wheeled around in a sharp turn as she slid one revolver back into its holster, but not stopping there as her hand slipped around the small of her back, fingers grasping for a wooden handle much bigger than the one used on a revolver.

As he whipped around to hold out his arm and aim at her again, certain that he would score a direct hit on her, out came a sawn-off shotgun in her hand from under her cloak. His eyes widened under the brim of his hat as dread washed over him. Before the man could get his gun into position and pull the trigger, the shotgun blasted off in her hand, the recoil throwing her off balance as the main brunt of the scattered lead slammed into his chest, ripping through clothing and flesh to throw him right out of the saddle.

The horse of the groaning bandit now on the ground reared up with a terrified scream as some of the lead shot cut up its hide, opting to take off like the earlier one. As it galloped away into the distance, Yang rounded on the last bandit left with a death glare. Terrified, and having been unable to successfully reload his weapon, he threw his hands up into the air, letting the rifle drop to the ground as he silently begged for mercy.

An uneasy few seconds passed as the blonde kept her remaining revolver aimed at him, hesitant to just let him run off. But judging that they had all been idiots to try taking on a caravan that had more guards than in their band, plus being weak enough that she and Ruby had taken them out on their own, she took pity on him.

"Go on, get!" She shouted as she drew back her gun. He didn't need any more than that, urging his horse with a nudge of heels to its flanks into sprinting off, not once looking back at the injured or dead companions that he had left behind. Out of those that had actually tried to attack, one was dead and lying on the ground motionless. Two were weakly guiding their horses to follow after the one who had surrendered. And the one that had gotten dragged along the ground by his steed hadn't returned.

Feeling good about driving the bandits off nearly all on her own, Yang turned her horse around to trot on back towards the first caravan, where Weiss was now standing up beside where the driver sat, having kept her eyes on the fight the whole time. Grinning once more, she pulled the stallion to a slow stop just before the heiress, grasping the front of her hat with one hand to push it back for a better look at her face.

"What did ya think, princess?" She asked, expecting some sort of praise. They hadn't even gotten close enough to the caravans to cause any injuries or damage to the stock they were carrying. "Pleased you hired the right people to act as guards?"

"You _idiot!_" It was a harsh hiss that the insult was uttered in, causing the smile to drop from Yang's face. There was a blaze of anger behind the blue eyes of her boss, her mouth set in an enraged sneer in-between each and every word. "What was that? What were you thinking? Have you no notion of self-preservation or caution underneath all that hair of yours?"

"I'm sorry, but I thought you would be happy." Yang spoke up, confused about where this was coming from. "Ruby and me just took out all the bandits by ourselves, and you're complaining about that?"

"What _you_ did was charge straight at them on your own without giving any indication or warning beforehand!" Weiss started again, not happy in the slightest. "We have plans for what to do when bandits show up, and those don't include charging straight at the enemy and putting ourselves at risk! No to mention that it would make it harder for others to aim at them without running the chance of putting a bullet in you instead of a bandit!" Taking in a breath, she raised a hand to point at the streak of blood down Yang's cheek. "You're lucky all you got was a scratch on the cheek instead of winding up dead!"

Chastened, the girl pulled her hat back down, an irritated frown settling on her own features as she glanced off to one side, showing more preference in focusing her gaze on some scrub instead of the small silver haired girl ranting at her from above. The stallion underneath her reflected its owner's mood, shifting from one side to the other as it slowly stepped back and forth.

"The only one I can't complain about here is Ruby." Her sister's head jerked to attention from putting her rifle away at the sound of her name being mentioned. Weiss was starting to calm down now as she vented away, the volume of her tone coming down in response. "Even if she attacked with you, at least she remained in line with the rest of the caravans instead of taking off with you into danger."

She might have scoffed before at the other girl being pronounced a rifle expert, but her handling of the weapon earlier proved Weiss wrong in presuming otherwise. She could appreciate skill, but she had no patience for foolhardy idiots like Yang who chose to jump straight into danger instead of coming up with a plan of attack. Not to mention the stupid nickname the older girl kept on using for her.

"When you hired us, you never said anything about having to keep to any plans you had up your sleeve." Yang tried to keep the annoyance boiling inside her like that, inside and not slipping into her words as she spoke. "You just said that we would 'guard the caravans', and that was it."

"Perhaps I didn't mention it because I thought you would be professional enough to not bolt straight towards bandits if they appeared, and would wait for a signal instead." The retort came swiftly off her tongue, growing tired of reprimanding the obstinate blonde for her actions. They had wasted enough time with this, they needed to start moving again. "I have no more to say about this, so I hope you got it through your thick skull to wait for orders next time. Now, get back into position behind the wagon." She ordered, stepping off the driver's platform and back into the shade of the covered cart, a pat to the man's shoulder as he passed enough of a signal for him to whip the reins in his hands, the pack horses setting off at a steady rate again.

Silently stewing over the treatment she had just been given, Yang didn't say a word as she waited for the cart to pass by, stepping her horse into line beside Ruby's. Her sister gave a timid smile in an attempt to pull Yang out of her mood, but she simply looked away. Ruby sighed to herself as she focused on the back of the wagon in front of them. Guess it was going to be a pretty silent trip for the rest of the day then.

* * *

><p>They managed to put in a good few more hours of travelling across the scrubland before having to set up camp for the night as the sun set behind them and dusk rolled in. Making the line turn so that they would all stop in a circle, Weiss called the end of the day, getting off the cart to start giving out more orders to people to set up areas for them to sleep in and to start cooking food. Seeing the girl back in her role as boss gave Yang a pang of irritation, but she pushed it aside.<p>

Soon enough, there was a campfire and a giant pot of stew brewing over it as the chill of the night began replacing the warmth of the day. If there was one thing that could beat the sheer sweltering heat that the sun would regularly beam down onto travellers out here, it was the cold of the night as it came, a bone chilling breeze choosing right to blow through the camp.

Ruby shivered as it passed, clutching her thin cloak tighter around herself as they sat near the flames. Although it being cotton was good for avoiding heat during the day while they were on the move, right now she just wished that she could turn it into fleece to wrap right around herself like a cosy blanket.

"Now, for the matter of guards during the night." Weiss spoke up nearby, reading off a list of paper in her hands. The sisters couldn't see what was on it from where they were sitting, but it held a list of daily tasks for the heiress, in her own hand's neat script. She had been going through the checklist religiously like she had every night prior to the pair joining on, and she would not be stopping that habit now.

"Ruby." The girl startled at her name being used, turning around in her spot to face the heiress talking to her. "You'll be on the first shift tonight." Not showing any indication that she heard the squeak of acknowledgement that came, Weiss moved on to listing other guards and their part of the night to keep an eye out for strangers and other likely threats.

"...and the two hour shift from midnight will go to Yang." The older sister did a double take before realising the spot she had been given. It would be almost the exact middle of the night, the worst shift you could get. Her mouth was half open to object as she twisted around, but catching sight of the cold glare that her 'leader' was giving her made Yang reconsider, opting to shut her mouth rather than draw more ire from her.

Her sulking over what must be further punishment for today's incident only lasted as long as it took for the food to finish cooking, soon ladled out in equally proportioned bowls to everyone. It was hard to hold onto anger when you had a bowl of great smelling food in your hands, and an empty stomach growling at you to fill it. She couldn't help shovelling her spoon in as fast as she was able, holding the bowl close to her mouth to shorten the distance between food and stomach.

"Yang, slow down! You'll get indigestion that way." Ruby teased, laughing inside that her older sister, supposedly the mature one, was forgetting all manners now that she had food in front of her.

"Don't care, so long as I can drive the hunger pangs away." Yang managed to say between spoonfuls of meaty broth. It didn't last forever though, the blonde soon letting her hands, and the empty bowl in them, drop down to her lap with a happy sigh. "That was good. Almost makes up for getting yelled at earlier." She joked, trying to play it off as just a minor hiccup, and that she hadn't sunk into a foul mood afterwards.

"See? I told you I picked up the bounty notice!" One of the guards sitting on the other side of the fire called out to his friends, catching their attention. He was holding up a weathered piece of paper in his hands, a large picture of a girl's head and shoulders taking up a majority of the parchment. Normally, the lack of colour to such drawings made it look quite different than the person they were based off of, but even Ruby would say that it would to find another girl with long dark hair and a pair of cat ears perched on top of their head to mistake the criminal on the bounty with. "The bounty out on Blake the Cat has gone up yet again!"

That was a familiar name. In the towns they had passed through so far, there had always been one notice at least on the notorious faunus thief. Given that they had no need to go after any bounties while they travelled to Beacon, neither Ruby nor Yang had any idea what she was wanted for exactly, just that she kept up her crimes enough to have the sheriffs always pinning new bounty notices with increasing dollar amounts on them outside their offices. Even now, Yang had no interest in something that would probably never affect her, more interested in seeing if she could talk her way into another bowl of stew.

"Maybe joining up to this job wasn't the best idea." Yang admitted, after finding her attempts for more food went nowhere. She leaned back, putting her hands on the earth behind her to keep herself from having to lie on the ground. "I thought it would be great to earn extra money while still heading over to uncle Qrow, but I wasn't expecting to get scolded like a brat that got caught with his hand in the cookie jar just for running off some bandits."

"Well, it was a little stupid, going right to meet them on your own when all the other guards were staying with the wagons." The confession from her sister made the blonde give her a pointed stare. "She did have a point. It's not like I wanted to see you hurt when we could avoid it either." Heck, it had only been her quick aiming earlier that had stopped one of the bandits putting a bullet in Yang's back. The elder sister ran one hand back through her curls, mulling it over now that her own sibling was pointing it out to her. Maybe she had acted a little rashly.

"Looks like it's time for my turn to guard tonight." Ruby spoke, spotting a guard who was supposed to watching over the camp with her during their shift waving at her. "The trip will probably get better over time, you'll see."

"Yeah, sure." Yang replied with a shrug as the younger took off with her rifle hanging on her back. Looking up at the stars twinkling above them, she mused over the parting comment Ruby had left her with. Would Weiss prove less angry and uppity with her over the trip?

Nah, no way that would happen with princess ice.

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><p><strong>Hope you like the chapter! If you did, please consider leaving a review.<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

"Urgh, why does it have to be so damn hot?"

Ruby looked elsewhere as her sister complained yet again about the scorching weather that had persisted so far during their journey. Even the scrub that they passed by on their horses seemed to be wilting under the furious rays of the sun. Since the incident with the bandits, there had been no further trouble along the way for the next couple of days. Other than Yang growing restless over the continuing stringent way that Weiss ordered the entirety of the caravan around, including them, things had been going well.

"Why couldn't there be at least some damn clouds overhead?" Yang tugged at the scarf around her neck with a single finger as she whined, pulling it away from the skin sticky with sweat underneath it. She was practically melting, even after having thrown her cloak into one of her packs. It had just reached noon a short while ago, so they did have the sun right on top of them.

Out the front of the first wagon, a tic in Weiss's right eyebrow went off again at hearing one of the newly hired guards start to groan about the weather again. This was a long trip, and the last thing she needed was the blonde constantly getting on her nerves by complaining about every little annoyance. The heat was to be expected when travelling through this region, the rest of the people working on the caravans, including the heiress, having gotten long used to it. It no longer got on her nerves, but the constant noise coming from the elder sister did.

"Well, the heat shouldn't be around for too long, Yang. See?" Ruby said as she pointed to the sky in front and to the left of them, where a growing mass of darkening clouds had gathered. If you watched it for more than a few seconds, one could see it slowly, just barely, inching across the horizon. "Soon enough, we'll have some rain to take care of the heat!" They were heading towards where its path would lead, a small set of mountains that had gotten closer over the days spent moving. Supposedly, they would be at the base of them before the end of the day would come.

"Maybe, but that doesn't stop it from being so hot right _now_." Yang grumbled in response. Leaning forth over the back of her horse, she let out a loud sigh. "I feel like I'm going to melt into a puddle of sweat out here!"

"Would you stop your whinging already?" Both sisters' attention was drawn to the back of the wagon in front of them, Weiss appearing from under the canvas cover to scowl at the older of the pair. "How on earth could you plan to travel all the way to Vale and not anticipate having to deal with the heat along the path?"

Truthfully, Yang's complaints about the weather had been merely a way to break up the boredom that came from riding on the back of a horse nearly all day long, save for a couple of breaks along the way for food and water. It wasn't like there were any more bandits around for the blonde to take her frustrations out on, and the heiress was likely to scold the hell out of her if she decided to 'slack off' in order to slake her boredom. Caught out when Weiss questioned if she was that ignorant when it came to travelling, Yang let her gaze slide to the left, a small awkward smile on her face as she tried to answer back.

"Of course! I'm not an idiot... I just didn't think it would be _this_ hot." Yang said, cringing inside at the contradiction her words clearly made. Raising a hand to rub at her forehead in an attempt to erase the pain coming from her brows knitting together, it was Weiss's turn to let out a sigh.

"You dolt. Of course it would be hot if you're still parading around with a jacket like that on." The silver haired girl pointed out the article of clothing in question. Her eyes flicked upwards. "Not to mention that scarf." How could she keep on whining, when she was still wearing clothes made for when it was cold, not hot?

Yang looked down at herself, reacting as if she had only just noticed for the first time that she had them on. Expecting her to be turn sheepish when the obvious course of action that should have been taken was mentioned out loud, Weiss felt off balance when instead a mysterious smirk grew across the other girl's mouth.

"Oh yeah, forgot about that." The blonde's eyes came back to look directly at Weiss, a slight flash of teeth to the growing smirk. "Guess I'd gotten used to wearing them all the time back home, and didn't even think to check if this was the right weather for them." As she talked, Yang undid the buttons holding the bottom half of the jacket closed around her, giving a shrug of her shoulders back once they were out of the way to dislodge the jacket and slide it off. "Really wish I had chosen some other kind of shirt for today though." She continued, one hand grasping round her scarf to yank it off.

The reason for her last comment was immediately shown with the other articles gone. Weiss had caught sight of the sunflower yellow shirt when the pair had met at the seedy bar, but the jacket had prevented any other details other than its colour to be seen then. Now, it looked more like a singlet than an actual shirt, with no sleeves other than the strap of fabric that went over each shoulder. Not to mention that it didn't even cover more than an inch down past her chest, leaving her stomach uncovered.

As Yang was distracted by tucking away her scarf and jacket into a saddlebag, Weiss found herself staring down to where the newly exposed skin of the girl's stomach lay. Toned muscles rolled as Yang twisted in her saddle, becoming more defined across her entire stomach as she did so. Sweat had trickled down during the time the blonde had spent with the extra clothing on, causing the skin over said muscles to gleam slightly in the sunlight. Blue eyes looked on unblinking, Weiss's mouth starting to open unconsciously as one last sweat drop traced down the middle of those abs, disappearing when it found its way to Yang's belly button.

"Much better already." _Wait, what am I doing?_ Snapping back to reality just as the blonde turned back to face her, Weiss was now the one to break eye contact, a shade of pink slipping onto her cheeks as her focus went to the right. Trying to regain her composure, the heiress coughed into one hand as Yang looked on, waiting to see if her boss had anything more to add. "...You look a little red there yourself, princess." The blonde leaned forward with a grin, placing both her hands on her horse's neck. "Sure you haven't let the heat get to you as well?"

"I'm fine!" The heiress snapped quickly, not wanting to be questioned further now that her blush had been noticed. "So long as you're done complaining for the day, I've got no more problems with you." She said bluntly, taking her leave back to the front of the cart to avoid any more attention to the pink flooding her cheeks that she was now attempting to fight away. God _damn it_, why did that stupid little gunslinger have to turn out to have perfect, distracting abdominal muscles like that?

As she watched her boss stomp back into the cart, letting the canvas flaps fold closed behind her, Yang grinned broadly. It hadn't been that hard to catch a peek sideways while putting her things away and notice why the heiress had gone quiet. She hadn't thought that Weiss would have an interest in muscles, or other girls for that matter. There was still the possibility of there being another reason that the girl had been staring, but that would be slim at best.

Still, it had been entertaining to actually see the stern caravan leader actually blush for once and make a swift exit. Enough to make her forget for a short while how many hours lay between now, and actually reaching those mountains. Lilac eyes took in the distance between the carts and the ridge that a road between them would take them through to a town on the other side, before taking another glance at the rain clouds gradually making their way to the same spot.

An unsettling feeling chose to nestle in the pit of her stomach as she looked on, though she couldn't explain quite why. Eh, it was probably just that whatever she had eaten last had turned out to be off. Wouldn't be the first time.

* * *

><p>About an hour before they reached the dip between the mountains, those same storm clouds that had seemed far off had spread right out, blocking all view of the sun and blue sky above as it brought a gradual drizzle with it. Minutes later, a far off rumble of thunder could be heard by all. It could have been a cue, given the downpour of rain that started almost right after.<p>

Finding the road that lead through the gap between the mountains was easy. But with the intense rain, came a problem.

Weiss viewed the roaring river that cut through their path before her as she stood up next to the driver of her cart. Normally, this river would simply wind round one side of the mountains as barely more than a wide stream and would pass down the ridge under an old, but well built wooden bridge. Now, from the all the runoff that must be coming downhill to join it, it was swollen enough be splashing up against the underside of the bridge, that was groaning as its supports strained to stay in the ground.

It was almost certain that the wooden beams wouldn't be able to withstand the river's onslaught for too much longer, age having caught up to its ability to withstand what the elements could throw at it. To try crossing it while the water kept surging up against it could prove to be dangerous, the safer course would be to wait out the weather. But if they chose to camp for the night early on this side, and woke up to find the bridge gone the next morning, it would cost them at least another day's travel to find another route around and into the town to stock up on supplies.

No, they couldn't afford to take on any setbacks. Not when they were doing so well on time already. If they kept this up, they could get home to Beacon earlier than planned, and Weiss could finally say goodbye to this inane test that her father had set for her.

"We move across while we still can." She ordered the driver waiting beside her. "Get every cart across before that bridge can give way." He responded with a simple, curt nod, before leaning out his side of the cart and yelling back a simplified version of her decision.

"We keep moving!" A few groans went up, but just about everyone sprang into action, jumping back onto their carts or horses as the first cart rumbled across the creaking bridge. Yang and Ruby followed after it, trying to ignore the wooden planks underneath them shifting and groaning away. Ruby's horse grew skittish as the girl urged the mare onwards, shying away from the side when a particularly strong surge caused water to crash against the edge and slop over the wood near its hooves.

"Easy there Crescent." The girl tried to reassure her mount with some calm words and a stroke to the neck, but the mare remained anxious until they were back on firm ground on the other side. Here, the road curved up and along the side of the mountain, away from any risk of the river flooding their path. It was also just wide enough to afford some room round the cart now rumbling further along it to make room for the others that were tentatively passing over the bridge.

Shielding her eyes against the rain with a raised arm, Yang watched on as they got down to the last pair of wagons that needed to make it across. All was going well, and the bridge was holding sturdy even with the water rising up to drench every inch of wood with constant splashes.

As the last cart rolled its way across the shaky crossing, it soon became apparent that the proper care needed to secure its cargo hadn't been shown. A small crate tumbled out the back as they just reached earth again, taking enough momentum with it to roll over to the middle of the bridge. The crew of that last wagon hesitated as they noticed it, not a one of them wanting to risk going back for it, but knowing that Miss Schnee would not allow them to leave any of the valuable cargo behind if it could be retrieved.

"I'll get it!"Startled by the sudden call out, Yang could barely react as Ruby raced by on Crescent to wind between the carts and get back to the bridge. Nervous as the horse was on being back there, she would only let out a snort as Ruby leaned down from her saddle to grab the crate with one arm.

That feeling from before, like a stone resting in the pit of her stomach, returned to Yang then. Something felt... off. Like they were moments away from something happening. Now that she was focusing back on the bridge itself, the blonde could notice that the water level had suddenly dipped. That couldn't be right, the level of rain hadn't changed at all.

As Ruby leaned down, Yang's eyes swung further back up the river. A roaring wave of water, much bigger than the earlier surges, was crashing down towards the weakened crossing.

"Ruby!" With a nudge of her heels, Yang's own stallion was soon sprinting towards the bridge, the younger sister only just now noticing the danger seconds away as she swung back up into the saddle, crate cradled in one arm. "Get out of there!"

Scared, the dark haired girl yanked on the reins of Crescent, the mare needing little urge to run. But the warning had come too late.

The wall of water smashed into the side of the bridge just before the horse could make it all the way. The structure, which had stood firm for many years despite weather like this before, was forced to give way due to its age and wear, snapping into misshapen panels of wood to be cast along the river. That same wave rushed against Ruby, both her and the mare disappearing under the water before Yang's eyes.

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><p><strong>Yes, probably a crappy cliffhanger, I know. But hey, least you'll get Blake finally popping up in the next chapter!<strong>


	5. Chapter 5

Ruby and her horse appeared on top of the water within moments of each other. The mare lurched out of the river with a scream as its eyes rolled back into sheer whites, scrambling out from the shallow side of the river it had managed to wind up at. It's rider on the other hand, hadn't been so lucky, swept along with the main surge of the flood.

Spluttering and coughing, a familiar head of dark hair popped out from the churning surface, Ruby's arms flailing as she sought blindly for anything nearby that she might anchor herself with. The sheer force of the hundreds of gallons of water sweeping her down the river's path couldn't seem to decide whether to let her stay on the surface or to drag her down again, the girl dropping back down from view before bobbing back up moments later.

"Ruby!"

There was no space alongside the river for Yang and her horse to sprint down, hoping that there would be a chance for the younger sister to drift close enough to shore to be grabbed and hauled out. Pebbles scattered away as hooves pounded over the trail that rose up alongside the base of the mountain it was set into, white knuckles gripping the reins for all they were worth.

Lilac eyes were scanning for any way to get closer to the river without getting sucked in as well as Ruby felt her nails scrape across soft wood, flailing in the surging river as she went under again. More thrashing towards where she had felt it last, and the girl gasped as she rose back above the water, anchoring herself to the slab of bridge wood that she had her arms wrapped around. While it may have been made weak by the years of weather wearing it down, the wood still proved useful even now, helping Ruby to remain buoyant as long as she kept a death grip on it, short nails digging into the surface as she ignored any splinters it was giving her as they sunk into her fingers.

But even with it, the foaming water kept dragging her down the river's path, pushing Ruby further and further away from a Yang desperate to catch up, even though her horse was already sprinting for all it was worth. The trail just kept rising up into the mountain's side, and the twists and turns of the gap only slowed her down further.

"Yang!" The smaller girl called out, her shout barely heard above the rushing of water around her.

The blonde took another quick glance towards her sister to make sure she was still holding on, and that was all the time needed for her to miss the obstacle that suddenly appeared around another turn, the stallion letting out a sharp whinny in unison to throwing on the brakes, skidding to a stop as desperately backpedalling hooves kicked up dust and stone. Yang lurched forward as it happened, the stirrups and reins just about the only things preventing her from having gone straight over the horse's neck to hit the ground. As soon as the momentum faded, the blonde pushed herself back into her saddle, reeling her head back to see what the problem was.

A rock rolled down the mountainside, dislodged by the vibrations that pounding hooves had sent through the earth, going into small jumps and leaps as it dropped down the slope and over the avalanche of stone that was blocking off the path, tossing itself off the other side and into the water with splash to disappear completely. Quite a few of the stones that made up the impassable mass before Yang were boulders big enough to break a horse's back, and certainly impossible to move on her own, even if they hadn't been covered by other rocks roughly the size of those crates that had spilled out of the wagons beforehand.

The blonde's jaw dropped open at seeing the pile of rocks spread out across the entire trail. Unless you were a complete idiot, it wasn't hard to see that there would be no way her and the horse would be able to climb over it and give chase once more to matching the speed of the river. Not when the highest perched stones were a couple of feet over her head, even on horseback.

"No... no, no, no!" Why did this have to appear now? Yang's gaze darted to the river just in time to see Ruby be rushed past, still gripping onto that chunk of wood with all the strength she could manage. She could hear her sister calling out for her, Ruby's voice growing fainter with each few seconds that passed by. Despite knowing that she could never catch up now, the blonde climbed out of her saddle to drop to the ground, stumbling from the landing as she lurched towards the rocks.

"Wait!" A demanding and familiar voice called out as the blonde put her hands on some of the rocks that were level with her head, her head twisting round to see a cart rolling up the trail towards her, Weiss on the front next to the driver as normal. "Just wait already!"

"What the hell for?" Yang shouted back, though she did stop from putting a foot up on a rock crevice to start climbing up. "Did you not just see my sister get caught up in that flood?" Every part of her was demanding that she get back to climbing over the rocks, despite the fact that one of the stones she had grabbed onto to hoist herself up with had slipped right out from amidst the others once she had applied some weight onto it.

"Yes. Everyone did." Weiss admitted, waiting for the cart to roll to a stop before slowly climbing down one side to approach the agitated gunslinger she had hired. "But it's too late to do anything about that now. Even if the path had not turned out to be blocked off," The heiress said, gesturing towards the rocky mass before them. "You, and your horse, wouldn't have been able to keep up with her. You were already slipping behind before you even wound up here!"

Yang let go of the rock that had slipped out as Weiss talked, letting it drop with a thud as that same hand started to curl up into a fist. Not noticing, the silver haired girl surveyed the avalanche in front of her, a couple of fingers curled round her chin in thought. Eventually, she let out a noise of disgust as she turned back to the caravan behind her, beckoning forth a worker with a wave of her hand.

"There's no other way, we have to stop here for now and clear the rocks aside." She said with a huff to him. With a quick nod, he took off to inform the others and get a crew together for displacing the rocks. Folding her arms just under her chest, Weiss pivoted back around towards Yang and the blocked off path. A sigh slipped out as she switched her gaze between the river and the avalanche.

"First the bridge and now this." She spoke, an irritated frown settling on her face. "I thought we were going to get ahead of schedule, but this will likely set us right back on time."

Time? Ruby had been swept down river with only a slab of wood to hang onto to keep herself from drowning, and the only thing this girl was concerned about was how much time they would have to waste before the wagons could move again? Yang's fist curled tighter by her side.

"So you don't even care about the fact that one of the people you hired has been sucked down a river? The only thing that matters is that your delivery gets delayed?" She asked, venom dripping into her voice by the time she was halfway through.

"That river leads straight to a lake right by the town we're headed to." Weiss said, barely noticing the increasing anger radiating off of the blonde, her mind still trying to calculate how long they would need to spend shoving the rocks off into the river. "She should just get washed up on the shore there, and we'll pick her up once we arrive. I don't see any problem, other than the one crate that fell in with her."

Perhaps Weiss would have had more to say after that, it's hard to say for certain. One thing that could definitely be said, is that a hard fist to a jaw is one sure-fire way to cut a person off. She went down fast into the dirt, unable to react nor catch herself in time to prevent eating dirt. Her brain still not quite certain what had hit her, the girl pushed herself up to her knees, a hand curling around her chin again, this time not to think, but to notice the thin stream of warm liquid that was coming steadily from one corner of her mouth.

"No problem? How the fuck can you say that it's no god damn problem?!" Yang yelled, standing in front of her. Red was creeping in to take over the purple in her eyes. "Are you saying that Ruby couldn't possibly be drowned before she even makes it there, or thrown onto rocks around the river until she dies? What the hell is wrong with you? You care more about a damn crate than you do a person!"

The fist was pulled back again as Yang lurched forward, intending to strike her employer once more as she ignored the sound of rushing feet and alarmed shouts coming closer. Before she could launch another punch, both of her arms were seized by caravan workers, hauling her back to pin her up against the rockslide. She screamed and cursed in a fit of rage, trying to fight off the increasing numbers of people holding her in place. It was a struggle for them, but the group managed to hold her back as Weiss slowly, quietly, rose from the ground.

Wiping a pair of fingers down the wet mark that trailed to her chin, the girl brought her hand forward to see the bright red blotches they gathered. As Yang continued to fight and curse at those holding her back, Weiss reached into the inside of the small jacket she had on, sliding out a spotless handkerchief from a hidden pocket. A few soft dabs, and the red blood had been transferred from her chin to the cotton fabric.

"What should we do with her, Miss Schnee?" One worker asked, ducking to narrowly avoid a fist to his head as the blonde managed to work an arm free from her restraints. Not saying anything, Weiss slid the handkerchief neatly back into the pocket from which it had appeared. Her gaze had been kept low during this entire time, snapping back up to the belligerent bodyguard's own eyes. Yang, growing tired from trying to fight against at least five people holding her back, stopped her thrashing long enough to glare right back, panting for air as she lay against the rough rocks.

"...She's not in her right mind, so she's not fit to keep working." She spoke, not once letting her eyes slip from Yang's. "Tie her up, and place her in one of the more empty wagons. She's not to be released under any circumstances until we reach the town... I'll decide what to do with her then."

Another curse slipped from Yang's mouth as she threw herself forward, almost catching the workers off guard long enough to come within inches of the Schnee again. But once the workers got back to restraining her, her back was once more thrown against the rockslide, her arms hoisted behind her as bundles of rope were run up from the first wagon.

Leaving them to it, Weiss walked on back to her place on the leading cart, feeling the bruising start to make itself known along her jaw as a deep ache set in. Idly rubbing her jaw where the punch had landed, the girl watched them finally tie some firm rope restraints onto Yang's arms behind the blonde's back.

_"You care more about a damn crate than you do a person!"_

The line spoken by Yang appeared once more, this time in the heiress's mind. Her back stiffened, and her jaw set in a grim line as she pushed those words away once more. It didn't matter what anyone else said about her. The only thing that was important, was getting this Dust delivery all the way to Beacon.

Then maybe, her father...

* * *

><p>Keeping a death grip on the wood the whole way through seemed to be the easier part of the trip, once Ruby realised that the sheer cold of the water wasn't going away any time soon. Combine that with the exhaustion of hanging on for hours with all she could for hours, and there was no question why the girl was shaking like leafy branch caught in a strong wind when the mountains on either side finally disappeared and the river opened up into a lake.<p>

The strong surge that had plunged the river into rapids and foam subsided eventually as the rain had died away, to the point where Ruby and her slab of wood simply floated out from the river's end along with the rest of the debris from the bridge, drifting towards the shoreline. It had been early in the evening when the caravans had arrived at the mouth of the trail towards town, and those hours the girl had spent caught in the river had seen the sun sink down past the horizon to let the stars and moon begin to shine above.

She could see lights nearby from some buildings, their reflections on the rippling water helping her tired eyes judge where the water ended and the ground started. There was no strength left in her arms or legs by now, the battering rapids leaving her slumped over the wooden slab as the residual flow of the river helped gently push her towards shallow water.

Unable to keep her hold for much longer once she reached the point where she could feel gritty sand scraping the tips of her boots, Ruby slipped off the bridge piece to splash once more into the cold water, the temperature of which had only dived lower with the sinking of the sun. Taking what little energy was left in her, she managed to crawl up a small distance of the shore, collapsing back down once she was beyond the point where she could put her head down without water rushing into her mouth, ears and nose.

With the water lapping at her legs, and small tremors of shivers rolling through her body every so often, Ruby lay there, caught between her body's demands to shut down and rest, and the need to get out of the water and avoid freezing to death. The more time she spent lying down however, the more it looked like the first would win out.

"Hey!"

A voice was calling out something, but to Ruby, it was as muffled as having a thick blanket over her head. The most she could manage in response to the noise was to tilt her head, just a few degrees enough to see a tall, silhouetted figure rushing towards her in the blurring light. She blinked her eyes, and suddenly the figure was blocking all the light, crouched down in front of the exhausted girl.

"How the heck did you get out here?" The question went unanswered as Ruby simply shivered some more, soaked right through to the bone. Amber eyes regarded the girl curiously as Ruby's own began to sank down.

"What- Hey, this is no place to fall asleep in!" The person hissed, trying to wake her back up to no avail. The girl was exhausted beyond all measure, she would be dead to the world for several hours at the very latest.

A sigh slipped out from the figure. Well this was great. Now she had a washed up girl to deal with on top of her regular work. Sure, there was the option to just leave her there, but it wasn't one she could take without guilt. They cast a glance out along the shoreline, noting the other pieces and chunks of wood that were beginning to roll to shore just like the girl, attention caught by one piece in particular.

Taking a couple of steps away from the unconscious girl, the person took a step into the shallows, reaching down to tug on the corner of a box they had spotted. It slid easily along the grit on the lake's floor, eased up to the shore to the point where the drawings of a white crystal could be seen on one side.

"The Schnee mark for their Dust cargo." The figure muttered to themselves, casting another glance back to the girl. "Looks like you might be of some worth to me, surprisingly." At least now there was good reason other than not wanting the guilt of leaving someone to die of the cold to bring her in.

A few seconds later, and Ruby was being carried by a strong pair of arms over to one of the lit up buildings that she had spotted earlier. As they reached the strong light coming a lamp hung out on the porch, the crest on the back of the leather coat the stranger was wearing lit up.

The bright blood red of the side of a beast's head, snarling at something unseen, along with the similarly coloured three scratch lines underneath it glowed almost sickly with the reflection of the lamp beaming upon it. Adjusting the limp weight in her arms, the figure pounded twice on the locked door, having to wait for the sounds of stubborn, loud locks to give way to the inhabitant of the house before it would open up.

"Adam," The dark haired woman said, stepping into the house with Ruby. "I think we have something here."


	6. Chapter 6

Waking came slow to Ruby, her body and mind wanting to hold onto the pleasantness of dreams and sleep in this cocoon of warmth it was in for as long as possible. As such, the first thing about her surroundings that she took notice of was the sound of soft crackling and pops, warm air flowing almost imperceptibly past the exposed skin of her face. It wasn't much, but the noise was enough to keep her brain focusing on something as it dragged itself out of the stupor of being unconscious for so long.

Bleary eyes slow to crack themselves open, the first thing her eyes laid on was the white sheet covering the mattress underneath her, the corner of a pillow holding her head in the corner of her eyesight. One hand slipped up from under the patchwork quilt on top of her, pushing against the mattress as she slowly sat up, springs shifting under her palm as she winced from the bruises making themselves known along her back.

Sitting up threw her off for a few moments, wondering why she was waking up in a wooden cabin instead of perhaps in a caravan or a tent. And once the jumbled memories of being swallowed up by the flood and carried off starting to trickle into her thoughts, the girl started to notice other odd things about the room.

For one thing, the mattress she was on wasn't settled on a proper bed frame. Or even in a bedroom. Instead, it looked like someone had dragged a mattress down into a living room, pushed it up against a wall before putting Ruby on it, and then draped some sheets and quilts over her.

In general, the room was messy, bags and clothes dumped messily throughout. This included her cloak, which had been apparently taken from her to leave draped over a wooden crate behind her. The only things that seemed to be in their proper places were the furniture pieces too big to move easily, a busted up armchair and the oaken frame of a couch. Dust particles were highlighted in the air by sunlight streaming in through windows, which practically shone spotlights on the boot tracks on the floor. A trail of dirt and scuff marks made a curved line along the floor near where the mattress lay, coming in through a nearby doorway to pass by the bed and to end at a fireplace, where dwindling orange and yellow flames were still greedily licking at a charcoaled pile of small logs and sticks.

Heavy clunking noises against the floor came towards the room, Ruby tearing her eyes away from observing the place to see who was making the door's rusty hinges squeal loudly as it swung open.

"Ah." The person paused in their tracks at seeing the teen up. "Thought you'd be out for a couple hours more." Thick boots hidden mostly by black pants clunked once more as the figure strode through the room, following the dirty trail on the floor until it came past the scuffed armchair, the noise stopping as they dropped down into the chair. Dark skinned arms that appeared from the rolled up sleeves of a crumpled white shirt, brown suspenders running up and over the woman's shoulders, propped themselves up by the elbows on the person's knees, hands coming together to make a rest for their head. Despite being inside, she made no attempt to take the typical looking cowboy hat from her head, even though it didn't seem to not even be holding up the dark hair that flowed down her back in waves.

Amber eyes watched Ruby carefully beneath the shadow of that hat, fixed pointedly on her as some kind of judgement took place behind them. Despite the fact that she couldn't see the other's face clearly, Ruby felt a stir of familiarity, though from where she might remember the stranger, she couldn't place. "Considering you almost drowned in that lake, we didn't think you'd be up by morning." Ruby started at those words. She couldn't have been out for that long, right? And if she had been, why wasn't Yang by her, instead of this stranger?

"U-um." Those eyes seemed to narrow in on her even more as she started to speak up. "Where am I, exactly?"

"...You're in the town of Mantle." The stranger paused oddly before speaking, considering her words. "From what I can guess, the river carried you down to the lake beside here, where you passed out. Do you remember anything about that?"

A memory did float up in the girl's head. Of clinging desperately onto the scrape of crate wood, the pain of splinters digging into fingers outweighed by that of the freezing water that kept surging into her and threatening to either drag her under or to throw her against the rocky sides of the chasm. What must have been only a few hours at most stuck that way felt like an age to Ruby's mind.

"Yeah. There was a flood from a rainstorm, and I got caught by it." Wait. Yang! And the rest of the caravan! This was the town they had been heading to, so they would be here as well by now, right? "What about the others?" The woman tilted her head slightly, obviously not understanding who she was talking about. "The caravan trail I was with, they were headed here. They should have gotten here by now." A gleam came to the woman's eyes, and while Ruby didn't know why, she didn't like it.

"No, no one else arrived, save for you." There was another tilt of the head, this time the eyes moving with it to the crate sat behind Ruby's bed. "Tell me, this caravan... Is it working for the Schnee company?"

"Uh, yes?" With the crate to her back and the red cloak draped over it, Ruby had yet to notice that the Schnee emblem that had been on all the crates full of Dust that they had been transporting, a jagged looking snowflake design, was emblazoned also on this one, along with a fair amount of water stains blotching its surface. "I don't see how that's important though." From what she knew, it was pretty common for the ridiculously large Schnee company to have caravans travelling through the country, carrying all sorts of cargo, from preserved food, to timber, to luxury goods. "Just who are you anyways?" That brought a pause to the woman, her gaze sliding off to one side, brief glimmers in those eyes hinting a debate on what kind of answer to give to that.

"...My name is Blake." Again, that stir of familiarity. Like off an old photograph. There was noise coming from another part of the house as she asked, a door opening and shutting along with footsteps and a muffled voice calling out, the walls between them too thick for their words to be distinct enough to tell what they were. Other voices, harder to hear than the first, seemed to be responding to it. "And they're transporting a cargo full of Dust?"

"W-why would you ask about that?" There was something strange about all of this. From the moment she had woken up, just about everything, from the house, to this person, seemed off. "All these questions, and I don't even know anything about who you are!" Raising her voice brought out a wince shortly after, as movement jostled the deep seated bruises to her muscles from the flood ride. Even so, the aching didn't stop her from pushing herself off the mattress, unsteadily rising to her feet even as Blake, or whatever the woman called herself, started to protest against this movement. And just where was her rifle?

"You should sit back down." The stranger had also gotten up, and was now coming close to lay her hands on Ruby's shoulders, trying to actually physically push her back down onto the mattress, even if there was a lack of actual force behind those hands. The other footsteps in the house started to get closer as the muffled voice became clearer, Ruby now able to tell that it was some man. "You were lucky enough not to have gotten a bad fever from being in the cold water for so long, there's no need to risk things getting worse now by pushing yourself."

"No!" Ruby raised her arms up, trying to shove off the grip the, now visibly taller, woman had on her. "Not until you tell me what's going on here!" The caravans should have gotten here by nightfall, or just a short time after dawn at the latest. The grip on her shoulders started to become tighter, the next push actually starting to bend her knees against her will. "Stop pushing me!" Her own arms lashed out, colliding with the taller woman to knock her back. A grunt was heard as one fist went into Blake's face, causing her head to jerk back and the hat to slip off.

"Sit. Down." Whatever pleasantness there had been in her voice before was gone now, Blake stepping back in close to grab the smaller girl's shoulders for a mighty push down. Off balance from the blows before, Ruby's behind quickly felt the thin mattress again, and the floor below it. A thump reverberated through the floor, giving a good reason for the door to the room to suddenly burst open.

"Blake, what happened?" Maybe it was just because her perspective was from the floor, but Ruby suddenly felt like she was before a giant redwood tree as she looked up at the man who had entered. Like the woman he had addressed, he was also of darker skin, but other than also wearing the same kind of clothes, that seemed to be the only immediate similarity between them. His hair seemed to be a swirl of brown and red swept backwards, the red streaks unnaturally bright. Perhaps it was this weird coloration that made her miss the two horns that sprouted from the top of his forehead and stayed close to his scalp as they grew backwards. Or perhaps it was the white mask covering a portion of his face.

"I'm fine, Adam. It was nothing. Everything's okay." Blake raised one hand to keep him back when he seemed intent on advancing right up close to her to inspect the small bruise she had gotten on her face, which she was rubbing with her other hand. With the hat now on the floor, what it had been concealing was clear for them all to see. Two ears emerged from amidst her hair, the fur as dark as her hair making them almost look at first glance to be just a couple of hair spikes. Too bad the pale white lining of their insides would make it hard to simply hide them among her hair.

But with time, Ruby's attention drifted to the mask. It spanned over where the cheekbones would lie, leaving only the half of his face from the tip of his nose down to be seen. Although the mask was bone white, red stencilled lines had been painted on, leaving a design recognisable to the girl on the floor.

"You're... you're White Fang?" That made their attention snap back to Ruby. There was no mistaking the mask that was ubiquitous with the White Fang. The ever-growing group seemed to always be reported in the newspapers as of late, becoming an ever larger terror to cities and regions across the nation. Their presence in what should have been only a little stop-over town for travellers only made this situation even stranger. But once Ruby thought over the questions she had been asked only minutes ago, it all seemed to click into place what was going on.

"You're after the Schnee caravan for the Dust they have!" She blurted out, the chill of realisation going down her spine as it all snapped into place. Of all the people and companies that had suffered from the presence of the White Fang, the number one victim had to have been the Schnee family. Nearly every month there would be reports of Dust theft, company men kidnapped or robbed, or, in recent cases, high ranking members being found dead. Their presence in this town that one of the company's caravan trails was bound to pass through could not be a coincidence in the slightest.

But now that she knew that, the question of what happened to the few townspeople of Mantle pressed on her mind. Ruby hadn't questioned the mess of the house really until now, but how likely was it that the White Fang would have had long enough to build their own safe house in order to ambush one caravan line? Taking a closer look around, the little pieces that showed the markings of a family started to show themselves. Notches struck into the door frame round the height for a growing child, a wooden horse left thrown into one corner and forgotten about. Lives had been lived here, that much was certain.

"What did you do to the townspeople?" She asked out loud without meaning to.

"That's none of your concern." The man called Adam stated with a sneer. "The only thing you should be caring about, is giving me all the information that we need, and hoping I don't decide you're useless after that." Despite how he had immediately gone to fuss over Blake when he had come in, the man seemed to be all teeth towards Ruby now that his attention was turned towards her. "Now, how many people will be with the caravan?"

"Like hell I'm going to tell you!" Ruby's voice dropped a bit at the curse, the reflex action of having a father that absolutely hated to hear any swear words come from his daughters' mouths. But he wasn't here, and she wasn't about to put up with this man's attitude, White Fang or not.

Even though her resistance had only been verbal, it didn't stop him from reaching down and sending a backhanded slap across her face. The mark on her face stung as she turned back to face him.

"Don't play stubborn with me, I'll-" He was cut off from launching into a demand by a shove to the side.

"Out." Blake ordered, giving him another push towards the door. "Now."

"But-"

"This is exactly why I wanted to handle this instead of letting you do it. Out!" He protested all the way, but was eventually shoved out and the door slammed behind him. Ruby rubbed her cheek as the Faunus made sure to lock the door against any further intrusions before turning back to the girl. For a moment, they locked gazes, the question of what would happen next playing on both their minds. Soon, Blake's eyes drifted to the mark on the other's face.

"...I'm sorry." A few steps, and she was crouched down in front of the smaller girl. "This wasn't supposed to go like this. It was supposed to be that I got information out of you, and then set you and the others in the caravans free once we had our hands on all the Dust." The girl was still rubbing at the stinging blow left on her face. "...Let me see."

Cool hands took the place of Ruby's own, and although she didn't want the touch of a likely criminal on her, it did feel nice to have them pressed to the forming bruise. She could see the flicker of amber eyes as they looked over the cheek turning as red as her name. For a member of a gang, it was surprising to think that this woman was actually trying to care for her instead of just trying to get what she needed from the girl. It was certainly puzzling, given that the behaviour of that Adam was what Ruby was used to reading about them in the papers.

"It doesn't look like much can be done about it." The woman eventually said, done inspecting and pulling back. Ruby almost immediately missed having those cool fingers on it when the stinging back to full force. "But it shouldn't hang around for more than a few days."

"Why are you being so nice?" Another tilt of the head greeted the question. "You know now that the Schnee caravan is coming, and already know that it's full of Dust. And I know you were the one to find me by the lake before I passed out." There hadn't been enough light to see the other's face back then, but she could remember well enough the voice despite her memory still being a little foggy about that time. "You've done more than you needed to do to get what you want."

"Perhaps I just felt that more information would help things go more smoothly." Blake replied after a brief pause. "Numbers, weapons, important figures..." She noted the darting away of Ruby's eyes at that last factor mentioned. "If we know what we're up against, taking the Dust will be that much easier, and probably wind up with less people hurt."

"I thought the White Fang didn't care about people getting hurt if they got in the way." Or at least, that was what she kept on hearing.

"Not all of us feel that way." Though if Ruby was to think anything by the tightening of her mouth into a line, it was that there wasn't enough of them. "But if anything, there is less reason to hurt anyone if we can just overpower them without trouble. And that would be much easier if we knew more about what to expect." A pointed look was sent the girl's way, trying to prompt her into speaking.

"...I can't tell you that." As much as Ruby wanted a way to make sure her sister, and the others, would be unharmed, she had no real way of knowing that Blake was telling the truth about not wanting to do any more damage than they had to. The woman's ears flicked to face backwards, but that was the only physical reaction that happened.

"Then I guess there's no use wasting time here." The Faunus stood up abruptly, and headed to the door. "By now, they should have cleared those landslides we left to slow down their way. So all that's left is to prepare for when they get here. You'll remain in here until it's all over."

The latch clicked open with the twist of a key, and Blake was almost out into the hall beyond when Ruby spoke up again.

"Can you maybe try not to hurt my sister?" With them both paused, Ruby wasn't quite whether or not to continue before she decided to press on. "She's tall, has really long blonde hair, and really likes to throw herself into fights."

"...I can't make any promises about what will happen." Truly, there was no telling what might happen once their plan went into action. Anyone that knew a damn about planning knew that all the planning in the world would dissolve away once a fight started. "But I'll see what I can do."

She didn't leave any time for more words to be exchanged, the door shutting quickly after that. The lock moving back into place made an audible click, and silence came back to reign over the room, other than the soft crackles of the dying fireplace. Ruby drew her knees up to her chest, and began waiting to see what would happen.

And while she waited, she thought about what were her chances to break that lock and sneak out to find her rifle were.


End file.
